me
in his lodge teaching the young crow to understand and talk the language
of the tribe. After the crow had mastered this, the Chief then taught
him the languages of the neighboring tribes. When the crow had mastered
these different languages the chief would send him on long journeys to
ascertain the location of the camps of the different enemies.

When the crow would find a large Indian camp he would alight and hop
about, pretending to be picking up scraps, but really keeping his ears
open for anything he might hear. He would hang around all day, and at
night when they would all gather in the large council tent (which always
stood in the center of the village) to determine upon their next raid,
and plan for a horse stealing trip, Mr. Crow was always nearby to hear
all their plans discussed. He would then fly away to his master (the
Chief) and tell him all that he had learned.

The Chief would then send a band of his warriors to lie in ambush for
the raiding party, and, as the enemy would not suspect anything they
would go blindly into the pitfall of death thus set for them. Thus the
crow was the scout of this chief, whose reputation as a Wakan (Holy man)
soon reached all of the different tribes. The Chief's warriors would
intercept, ambush and annihilate every war party headed for his camp.

So, finally learning that they could not make war on this chief's people
unbeknown to them, they gave up making war on this particular band. When
meat was running low in the camp this chief would send the crow out to
look for buffalo. When he discovered a herd he would return and report
to his master; then the chief would order out the hunters and they
would return laden with meat. Thus the crow kept the camp all the time
informed of everything that would be of benefit to them.

One day the crow disappeared, over which there was great grief among the
tribe. A week had passed away, when Mr. Crow reappeared. There was
great rejoicing upon his return, but the crow was downcast and would not
speak, but sat with a drooping head perched at the top of the chief's
tepee, and refused all food that was offered to him.

In vain did the chief try to get the crow to tell him the cause of his
silence and seeming grief. The crow would not speak until the chief
said: "Well, I will take a few of my warriors and go out and try to
ascertain what has happened to cause you to act as you do."

Upon hearing this, the crow said: "Don't go. I dreaded